Ken Hall: Expand monitoring, stem credit breaches

I have never shopped at Neiman Marcus so the hackers could not get me there. I do shop at Target, but I didn't during the time when the latest security breach was reported.

Ken Hall

I have never shopped at Neiman Marcus so the hackers could not get me there. I do shop at Target, but I didn't during the time when the latest security breach was reported.

Still, I have twice in the past two years received notification that my information might be at risk, once from my bank and once from a store where I used my credit card. Each time, I received a free year of credit monitoring.

As each week brings another batch of bad news on the hacking front, it becomes clear that these are no longer isolated incidents. Hacking is a way of life so it is time to conclude that despite the best efforts at prevention, that will never be enough. We need a cure. And the cure is already available.

In some cases, credit card companies are right on top of things. Here's how I know.

We traveled out of the country a few times in the past two years and each time, I notified the credit card companies about our travels. As a result, I had no trouble using my debit card to get money from an ATM outside a bank in Ireland and alongside a pagoda in Myanmar. I bought a modest amount of paprika in Budapest with my Visa card, no questions asked.

But when I tried to fill the tank a few miles across the border in Canada, the card would not work.

I hadn't thought I needed to let the company know about such a short trip but the system to watch for any discrepancies was on high alert.

As I walked in to pay cash, I got a call from an 800 number with instructions to check with my card company. I called back on the credit card service number, provided the security information and got the card activated again, ready to buy all the basics: gas, lunch and duty-free liquor.

Someone I know says that these incidents prove how insecure online transactions are. Storing your credit card with any retailer and paying bills online through your bank are just an invitation to thieves.

That's true to some extent, but this same person had her card hacked when she used it to place a phone order. The company caught the breach and it went no farther.

But that goes to show that any time you use your card, whether you give it out on the phone or hand it to somebody at a restaurant or store, you run the same risk.

They already monitor closely enough to know I was at a gas station in Canada. They routinely provide a year of credit monitoring when there is a breach.

Put these two together — keep monitoring and put everyone on the credit watch for as long as they have the card.

It is in the interest of all these stores and credit card companies to make it easy for us to spend money.